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• How does it work?
The FELDENKRAIS Method is not about learning a series of movements by rote. It's about learning to relate to yourself, your environment, and your experience in a new way. It's about changing your perception of how you feel physically as a means of changing your concrete experience of reality. FELDENKRAIS works by taking you to places you have not visited for years, or in some cases, may have skipped entirely. Movement is a way to stimulate neural pathways. Awareness is a way to expedite new learning. The movements themselves are a means to an end: laying down new neural networks and reviving old ones from both developmental and evolutionary stages of human experience allows us to free ourselves from conditioned response and make new choices that are more biomechanically, emotionally and mentally safe.
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• What is the format of the FELDENKRAIS Method? What is FI? What is ATM?
There are two formats: a one-on-one session and a class format. The one-on-one session is called 'FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION' (FI) and the class format is called 'AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT' (ATM).
For FI you would visit the office where Gabrielle will work with you individually. You will be asked some questions about what you really want out of the experience, so think about that before you come. You will be guided through a series of movements that will make it evident where you like to go, versus where you are blocked, unfamilliar or not able to move. Gabrielle will work with you in various ways, either standing, sitting or lying down on a wide padded table, slowly moving you in silent communication with the innate intellegence of your own nervous system. When you finish, you will find something altered in your sense of what is possible, in the way you feel doing the things we need to do to get around in the world every day. Depending on your request, the results vary. You may see some of the case studies for more on this topic.
For ATM you would participate in any of the classes offered. Show up in loose, comfortable clothing. ATM is usually, but not always taught from the floor because when you are lying down, you don't have to use your postural muscles to counteract the force of gravity. When you are lying down, it's easier to feel the difference between necessary effort, as opposed to extraneous tension. Most people are completely unaware of the real level of tension they carry, so it takes an unusual level of quiet to become connected with something we are so well conditioned to ignore. Lying down on a mat, you will be verbally guided to move in sequences that relate to developmental patterns. Although the movements are slow, often the challenge is like a movement puzzle. Given a request to move in ways that are intentionally non-habitual, you have an opportunity like no other to expand the realm of comfort and learn to move around limitation. This completely unique way of looking at your own experience changes how you inhabit your body from unconscious, habitual tension to a new sense of stability, length, space and comfort. Incidentally, you may also find you have better balance, better aim and/or better posture. Yet, it arises out of schooling your internal ability to recognize what is "bio logic" - in other words, you cultivate an almost intuitive feel for the logic of how your own body is constructed and how to best use it to advantage as you move through space and time.
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• Where do I begin?
To make dramatic shifts in how you feel physically as well as in the level of comfort and freedom you experience emotionally and mentally, get as much exposure to the Method as you possibly can. You have several options depending on your budget and schedule. The best option is to get a series of five F.I. sessions, and to gradually start taking classes to learn how to create ease for yourself independent of a practitioner. If that is not possible, you can also try getting FI monthly and working with audio CD's on your own. Live classes are the best way to start learning to work with yourself in the beginning. For most people, the fundamental issue is to change how we relate to ourselves. This creates the necessary opening for shift to happen. You can surely visit one class a week at the very least, and you will benefit. Yet, the greater the exposure, the more quickly you will learn, and the greater the commitment, the more dramatic the possibility for change.
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• Who Can It Benefit?
We can all benefit from FELDENKRAIS, at any age, whether physically challenged or physically fit. FELDENKRAIS is beneficial for chronic or acute pain. Back pain, neck, shoulder, hip, legs or knee pain all respond to the Method. Healthy individuals also benefit from the way in which the Method helps prevent premature aging. FELDENKRAIS has been very helpful for central nervous system conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and stroke. Musicians, actors and artists can improve their skill with it and enhance creativity, making it easier to connect with the ever elusive muse. Seniors learn it to retain or regain their ability to move without strain or discomfort, and to prevent the dangers of osteoporosis and falling because of diminished mobility.
Anyone who wishes to experience greater ease of movement, increased vitality, and feelings of peacefulness will enjoy FELDENKRAIS. After a session you often feel taller and lighter, breathe more freely and find that your discomforts dissipated. You will find you feel relaxed, more grounded, more centered and balanced.
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• Examples how it can help:
Successful Students have accomplished the following benefits after work with the FELDENKRAIS Method:
- a 42 year old computer programmer with incipient wrist problems is able to increase his speed on the keyboard after learning how to use his arms and hands more efficiently.
- a 28 year old woman goes through her third pregnancy, but the first one without back pain.
- a 55-year old woman is able to lift her affectionate 2 year old granddaughter without straining her back.
- a 40-year old cellist becomes so creative in developing new, less strained positions to play in that she able to extend her musical repertoire.
- a 9-year old with learning disabilites can read a full page competently and gains self-confidence in his intelligence.
- a 19-year old diver is able to visualize and perform the complex series of movements needed to accomplish an intricate endeavor more proficiently.
- a 78-year old man walks a mile daily, free of chronic knee pain he’s had for 30 years.
- a 32-year old man learns to reuse his hands after a crippling auto accident.
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• Who uses FELDENKRAIS?
Professional athletes who have enjoyed the benefits of FELDENKRAIS include basketball star Julius Erving and PGA golfers Rick Acton and Duffy Waldorf. Celebrities who have used Feldenkrais include Norman Cousins, Margaret Mead, former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Helen Hayes and Whoopi Goldberg. Famous musicians include violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and cellist Yo Yo Ma.
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•How can you work with such a diverse range of people?
The commonality between seniors, injured persons and athletes is function. On one end of the spectrum, the elderly struggle with very basic things, like balance or going from sitting to standing. Further up the continuum of basic function, people with injuries usually move pretty well, but are challenged by a specific limitation. Further up the scale, in working with athletes, the issue is how to improve advanced function. The question then becomes how to do you refine the performance of someone who has already spent years perfecting their skill. At the highest end of the spectrum, I get to work with people who want to improve themselves at all levels, not just the physical. This is where this method moves people from being just good enough to survive, to enjoying what they most want to do with their lives.
"When we live life in exile from the sensate reality of the body, we live in exile from the source of our aliveness."
-Donna Farhi
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• How does it work?
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• What is the format?
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• What is FI? What is ATM?
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• Where do I begin?
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• Who uses FELDENKRAIS?
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• Examples how it can help.
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•How can you work with such a diverse range of people?
